Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Publishers Lunch

Stephen
Brayda will join the Harper One Group on
April 24 as art director for Harper Via, Amistad and Harper Espanol, reporting
to Judith Curr. He was previously with Riverhead.

Director of events at Copperfield's Books Barbara Lane debuts a column
for the San Francisco
Chronicle, Chapters and Verse, where she will "discuss
what I love about the literary world, often focusing on our rich Northern
California scene, personalities, trends, controversies and more."

Forthcoming
As agent Esther Newberg had indicated
in an interview a year ago, the unfinished memoir by the late Prince Rogers Nelson
will be published
October 29 by Random House, still listed as a Spiegel & Grau book even
though that imprint was recently discontinued. The portion Prince had already
written, "pages that brings us into Prince’s childhood world through his
own lyrical prose," comprises the first of four parts. The rest of the
book features "a scrapbook of Prince's writing and photos," another
set of images showing his evolution, and "his original handwritten treatment
for Purple Rain." New Yorker writer Dan Piepenbring, whom Prince had
selected as a collaborator for the book, writes an introduction.

BooksellingThe Barnes
& Noble in the Virginia Beach, VA's Town Center will close
for renovation on April 28, reopening in late fall. The renovation will include
a redesigned children's section and a space for author visits, based on
"one of Barnes & Noble's latest prototypes."

In Daytona Beach,
FL, the company opened
a new 15,000-square-foot store at Tomoka Town Center, their 11th new format
store. It replaces their store on W. International Speedway.